


Soldier to Soldier

by Maybethings



Series: May Be Promptin' [134]
Category: Dragon Age
Genre: Canon Convergence, Drabble, Gen, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-07
Updated: 2012-06-07
Packaged: 2017-11-11 13:45:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/479175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maybethings/pseuds/Maybethings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Promptfic. Aveline meets Sten in Lothering.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Soldier to Soldier

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cherith](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cherith/gifts).



Outside Lothering was a cage, covered in rust and slowly, very slowly, starting to become engulfed in moss. Inside the cage was a man. A Qunari, the villagers said, and Aveline couldn’t gainsay that. She’d never seen one either, and with any luck she never would. But he looked more like a statue, standing stock-still behind the metal bars, barely moving between one sunrise and the next.

It was only when she went to look for herbs for the village elders, and she heard the statue praying, that she knew it was alive.

“Who are you, exactly?” she asked bluntly, taking in the broad shoulders, the white hair, the dull purple eyes that looked back at her. The blood under his ragged fingernails.

“A prisoner,” he replied. “Caged here until starvation or the darkspawn end me.”

Aveline sucked on her teeth, brow furrowing. Wonder what Wesley would say to that? “You look like a soldier.”

“I am."

“What are you in there for? Did you desert?”

“No,” he said with such striking vehemence that Aveline’s hand instinctively went for her shield. “My crime is murder,” the man replied in a slightly softer voice.

“…You’re the one who waited for the Templars.” Flashes of a story came back to her: a mass murder, dead children, a man in the midst of the carnage, red to the elbows with blood.

“Yes.” He stood there, calm and composed, and Aveline knew that resignation, that mabari-like stubbornness.

“You have to pay for what you’ve done.” It was revelation and statement at once. A harsh crime deserved a harsh price—and here was one willing to face it down with dignity. That much, she could respect.

He nodded. “Then we understand each other.” 

“Do you have a name, soldier?” she asked.

“I am the Sten. We have nothing else to speak about, human. Leave me in peace.”

When Aveline next passed the cage, it was empty. Open. She wondered if he had found his atonement.


End file.
